1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an auxiliary member which is inserted into between a fixing member supporting a solar cell module on a roof material and the roof material.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, a solar cell module installed on a roof of a building or the like has been fixed onto a roof material through a mount formed by assembling long frame members in a form of parallel crosses (Japanese Patent Application Laid-open NO. 2006-037545). However, when the solar cell module is installed (supported) through the mount in the form of parallel crosses, the mount in the form of parallel crosses is needed to be built on the roof for installing the solar cell module. Therefore, time and effort is required and the number of parts is large, resulting in a problem of increase in cost.
In order to solve the above problem, the present inventor has proposed a technique in which the mount in the form of parallel crosses is not installed, each of outer edges of the solar cell module at an eaves side and a ridge side is supported by a plurality of fixing members, and each fixing member is directly fixed onto a roof material (Japanese Patent Application Laid-open NO. 2007-165499). Each fixing member includes a base portion, an erected portion, and a blocking portion. The base portion has a placement portion and a fixing portion and is placed on the roof material. The outer edge of the solar cell module is placed on the placement portion. The fixing portion is formed on a lower side of the placement portion and is a portion for fixing the fixing member onto the roof material. The erected portion extends from the placement portion of the base portion to the upper side. The blocking portion extends from an upper end of the erected portion to both sides so as to be in parallel with the placement portion. In the technique, the outer edge of the solar cell module is sandwiched and supported by the placement portion and the blocking portion.
A plurality of solar cell modules can be fixed onto the roof material sequentially from one side (for example, the eaves side of the roof) by using the fixing members. Therefore, an installing operation of the solar cell modules can be made easy. Further, each fixing member can be slid along the outer edge of the solar cell module. Therefore, the fixing member is fixed onto a structural material of the roof, such as a rafter so that installing strength of the solar cell module can be enhanced. In addition, since the mount is not needed, the number of parts can be reduced, thereby reducing operation cost and cost for installing the solar cell module.
However, when the solar cell module is fixed directly onto the roof material not through the mount, if flatness of the roof material (for example, roof surface material (roof tile, color best, corrugated plate, and the like), rafter, roof board, and the like) onto which the fixing members are fixed is undesirably swelled or strained, the following problem is caused. That is, positions (heights) of the plurality of fixing members which support the solar cell module become non-uniform so that the solar cell module cannot be installed in the right direction or the solar cell module cannot be installed. In addition, when a plurality of solar cell modules are installed on the roof material, there arises a problem that heights at which the solar cell modules are installed become non-uniform so that the entire appearance looks bad.
Conventionally, when a predetermined screw is made to penetrate through the fixing portion of the fixing member and are screwed into the roof material so as to fix the fixing member onto the roof material, there is a risk that rainwater and the like enter the lower side of the roof material down the screwed predetermined screw. Therefore, a plate-like sealing member formed with a rubber and the like is inserted into between the fixing member and the roof material. Further, it can be considered that height at which the fixing member is installed is changed by stacking a plurality of sealing members. However, in this case, the rubber between the fixing member and the roof material becomes thicker. Therefore, if the stacked sealing members become thinner due to temperature change by air temperature and the like, change with age, and the like, the fixing of the fixing member onto the roof material becomes unstable, resulting in deterioration of installation strength of the solar cell module.